Mazedude - The American Album (2006)

Happy belated New Year! For the final day of Weaboo Week I'm uploading something that barely fits the theme at all... in fact, this tribute to American video game composers came about partially as a reaction to the abundance of tributes to Japanese composers being released at the time. This pretty much ended up being video game music week, huh? Oh well!

In the American Album, Mazedude (a.k.a. Chris Getman) remixes music from several American video games in a very wide array of styles. Due to his unusual choice of audio software, Mazedude's style has a distinct sample based sound to it which you'll probably either love or hate. A follow-up called American Pixels is due for release later this year. Pre-order it if you're so inclined and in the meantime you'll also get a bonus EP of progressive chiptune remixes.

Because this is one of my favourite albums ever, I also put together a 'companion' download filled with bonus items. Download that too if you'd like to hear the original compositions behind every remix on the album, pieces of music that served as stylistic inspiration for the remixes, unfinished 'sketches' for tracks that never made it onto the album, source files in .IT format for three of the songs... and more.

Download (320)
Download The American Album Companion

Jake 'virt' Kaufman

Jake Kaufman (a.k.a. virt) is an American video game composer responsible for the amazing soundtracks to games such as Shantae, Shantae: Risky's Revenge and BloodRayne: Betrayal. He has also released a vast quantity of original music and arrangements, many of which are freely available on his website. A highlight of his oeuvre is his series of fictional video game soundtracks (FX, FX 2.0 and FX3), the first of which you may have encountered in arranged form in an earlier Weaboo Week upload. Four of his notable recent works follow:

Jake Kaufman - Contra Dual Spirits Original Soundtrack (2008)

Contra 4, released in Japan as Contra Dual Spirits, is probably Kaufman's most famous soundtrack. Composing a Contra soundtrack was seemingly Kaufman's dream from a fairly young age, as such this is an extremely developed stylistic homage which even features an updated version of his Contra-style track Vile Red Falcon made for the album FX2 in 2002. Fans of this soundtrack should be sure to check out the remix album, Contra 4: Rocked 'n' Loaded.

Download (320) password: 3ost-com
Download (FLAC) password: 3ost-com

Jake Kaufman - Mighty Milky Way / Mighty Flip Champs OST (2011)

This album opens with one of the best Vocaloid songs I've ever heard (actually, I prefer the extended version that appears later, but they're mostly the same song). This track is distinctly J-pop, even featuring some Japanese lyrics despite its American origins, but other tracks on the album offer completely different styles. Incidentally, Kaufman is also responsible for what is probably my favourite Vocaloid song, Lorem Ipsum.

Free / name your price at Bandcamp

Jake Kaufman - Mighty Switch Force OST (2011)

Self-descibed as "space disco house music", this follow-up features both original music and some familiar tunes from the previous games in the series rearranged as Daft Punk-esque electro. I feel this album exceeds hipster-favourite Glass Swords in its insane happiness, especially the track Love You Love You Love which I've found myself listening to more times than I feel comfortable admitting. Towards the end of the album this track gets remixed by coda in the style of Tree of Knowledge, an album coda worked on which pays tribute to the eroge soundtracks of Ryu Umemoto.

Free / name your price at Bandcamp

Jake Kaufman - Kwakfest (2008)

Last is Kaufman's first physically released album, an anthology of songs made for the speed composing party known as Kwakfest. Every song here was made within a strict 1-hour time limit using the MIDI format. In spite of this (and/or because of it) virtually every track is amazing, with Choppastyle and World's Most Wanted Wiener being my favourites. Also of note is Supabonk, one of only two pieces of synthesised music I've heard that manage to sound pornographic despite being entirely instrumental. The other is Chibi-Tech's Oniichan Dakara Iiyo, which is even worse if you know some Japanese.

Buy the CD
Download (V0)

Ryu Umemoto

Here's a last minute addition for day 5 of Weaboo Week. Ryu Umemoto was a video game composer who worked primarily with FM synthesis and scored mostly shoot 'em ups and eroge (pornographic visual novels). He passed away earlier this year at the tragically young age of 37.

Ryu Umemoto, Ryu Takami - Eclipse "The Album" - Ryu Umemoto Rare Tracks Vol.1 (2007)

Unlike subsequent entries in the Rare Tracks collection, this album offers CD quality audio rather than music created under strict hardware limitations. This definitely results in a greater variety of styles, but I find myself more drawn to Umemoto's pure FM music. Luckily for me, this album features a bonus disc comprised entirely of FM arrangements.

Download V0 (4S)

Ryu Umemoto - Desire "The Origin" - Ryu Umemoto Rare Tracks Vol.2 (2008)

This is probably my favourite Rare Tracks album. I consider it a masterwork of FM synthesis with several amazing tracks. Ishtal and Reflector are two such tracks, and the album even features subtly different renditions of these themes played on alternative sound chips.

Download V0 (4S)

Ryu Umemoto, Ryu Takami - Xenon "The Origin" - Ryu Umemoto Rare Tracks Vol.3 (2008)

Xenon "The Origin" takes the multiple renditions theme of the previous volume even further by offering the complete soundtrack as recorded on both the YM2203 (OPN) and YM3438 (OPN2C) sound chips. Some of these tracks have an intriguing lo-fi techno sound that's not the sort of thing I expect to encounter on a video game soundtrack.

Download V0 (4S)

Ryu Umemoto, Ryu Takami - EVE burst error "The Perfect" - Ryu Umemoto Rare Tracks Vol.4 (2009)

This marks the end of the Rare Tracks series, with the exception of a special volume only attainable by purchasing the first three together. I considered getting this shortly after learning of Umemoto's passing, but the cost of about $100 was just too much for me. It appears to be out of stock currently... for now you'll have to settle for Vol.4 which contains about 2 hours of sweet FM tunes.

Download V0 (4S)

Ryu Umemoto - Konoyo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo: YU-NO (YM2608 rip)

This is probably Umemoto's most famous soundtrack and spans an impressive 5 hours. There's a little debate as to whether Ryu Takami, Umemoto's close collaborator, also worked on this, so don't deem my attribution of this solely to Umemoto definitive. As far as I know, official recordings of the soundtrack in its original FM format were never released (in spite of its popularity) so provided here is an excellent rip by Knurek in direct link form. Hopefully this won't crash anyone's server...

Download VBR
(Source)

Ryu Umemoto - Akai Katana Original Soundtrack (2010)

Another CD quality audio soundtrack, with some FM thrown in for good measure (it's what Umemoto does best, after all). Tracks 15 and up are voice samples from the game. I don't recommend listening to them, but decided not to exclude them for completion's sake.

Download V0 (MF)

Ryu Umemoto - NIN2-JUMP Sound Track / Akai Katana FM Sound Collection (2011)

The first half of this album covers NIN2-JUMP, which I believe was Umemoto's final solo soundtrack. It's a neat mix of FM with more modern samples and sounds. The second half of the album remixes the Akai Katana soundtrack in a similar FM fusion style.

Download V0 (MF)
Download FLAC (4S): Part 1 Part 2

Kanar - Steppes III (2007)

Kanar is Yann van der Cruyssen (a.k.a. Nurykabe, Morusque) and Léo Mathieu, the former of whom contributed to the soundtracks of indie games such as Knytt Stories, Blocks That Matter and Saira along with the controversial remixed score for the Steam / Mac App Store / WiiWare version of Cave Story.

This album features arrangements from not only these games' soundtracks, but others such as Chrono Cross, Grim Fandango and Monkey Island. Also included in the MP3 upload is a great cover of Song of Storms (the Windmill Hut music from Ocarina of Time) which appeared on Steppes II.

Download (VBR)
FLAC version available on Nurykabe's website

P.S. I'm pretty sure the attribution of track 15 to Yasunori Mitsuda on Tracklist.png is a typo which should say track 11.

Mega Man 9 Mega Post

Day 2 of Weaboo Week brings a plethora of Mega Man Downloads. Most Mega Man games have pretty great music (with Mega Man 2 probably being the fan favourite) but my main focus here is on Mega Man 9, a fairly recent entry in the series.

TSSF - RockMan (Mega Man) 9 NES Retro Soundtrack (2008)

The soundtrack of Mega Man 9 ostensibly emulates the 8-bit style of its NES predecessors, but ignores some of the subtle technical limitations of the console. This download is not the OST itself, but almost perfect recreations of every song using the NES sound format that have then been recorded using NES hardware.

Download (V0)

Random - Mega Ran 9 (2009)

Mega Ran 9 is a hip hop concept album that features backing tracks based on the game's music and an ongoing narrative inspired by the game's story. Absent from the download I've posted is the Splash Woman instrumental which was added for the digital release. If you really want it, head to Random's Bandcamp page, where the other two entries in the Mega Ran series are also available.

Download (VBR)

Various Artists - Chiptuned Rockman (2009)

Chiptune remixes of chiptunes. Lots of people thought this was a dumb idea, but not me! Some of these arrangements showcase ridiculous talent and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in getting into chipmusic. The source tracks for this span the entire franchise. Don't be put off if you don't know the original versions, but one track I think seriously benefits from familiarity with the original is virt's take on Tornado Man, so consider checking that track out in the Mega Man 9 soundtrack above before listening.

Download (V0)

OverClocked ReMix - Mega Man 9: Back in Blue (2011)

This fan-made remix album covers a wide variety of styles and genres. I don't adore everything on offer, but it outdoes the official Mega Man 9 arrange album massively. One track I think will appeal especially to readers of this blog is Morricone Man, which references Ennio Morricone's style along with some of his most famous melodies. Mazedude even includes some sneaky samples from the previously posted Morricone RMX (in fact, he was the one who introduced me to that album).

Download free from the official site. MP3 and FLAC and torrents, oh my!

OverClocked ReMix - Rockin' Sockin' Cinder Blockin' (A Concrete Man Remix EP) (2011)

This one's a mixed bag in terms of quality, which is understandable given that it was proposed, produced and released in the space of two weeks to address the absence of a Concrete Man remix in Back in Blue. The standout track for me is probably Concrete Heart.

Download (mostly 192)

LSD - Uptime (2007)

Merry belated Christmas! Today marks the beginning of what I'm calling 'Weaboo Week' even though that title barely applies to most of the stuff I'll be posting. I plan to make 7 posts over 7 days with vague recurring themes of covers, music originating from Japan or music I consider generally nerdy.

Today it's Uptime by LSD, a jazz trio led by Sam Ascher-Weiss (a.k.a. Shnabubula) who I've posted about here twice before. Sam performs piano solo on the first three tracks but is later joined by Dustin Kaufman on drums and Lenwood Turner on trumpet (performing only briefly due to the effects of wisdom teeth removal). My favourite track is an arrangement of the main theme of Chrono Trigger, which is embedded above.

Uptime isn't technically an album, the name simply refers to the studio it was recorded at. Unfortunately it doesn't serve as a very good advertisement for the studio; the tracks feature low bitrates, questionable volume levels and occasionally audio glitches. Still, I recommend this release wholeheartedly on the strength of these arrangements alone. Also, do yourself a favour and check out Sam's other performances on YouTube and Bandcamp.

Download

Bad Dudes - Thai Guy (2008) [VBR]

Behold, an EP comprised entirely of covers of Sagat's theme from Street Fighter 2. There are 10 covers in all, including styles such as prog rock, porno groove, solo piano waltz and obscure tracker module tribute.

Hopefully this will appeal to some people. As far as I'm concerned, there is no need to know or care about Street Fighter to listen to this, as that was pretty much the situation I was in when I first heard it.

For those interested, the MP3 comments tell a little story. Oh, and Sagat is from Thailand, hence the title. Apparently Max is friends with Sagat on Facebook, so maybe we can hook up the man himself?

Download from MediaFire or the Bad Dudes website.